If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

Politics is the art of the possible.

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

On the loftiest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own rump.

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

I work for a government I despise for ends I think criminal.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

The most hateful torment for men is to have knowledge of everything but power over nothing.

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.